SAN FRANCISCO — Cherubic Ventures has completed the venture capital firm’s Fund V at $110 million, with a total of over $400 million in committed capital under management.
Operating under a multi-market, “First check” strategy, the VC firm saw two IPOs and one major acquisition in 2021, doubling its number of successful unicorns from the previous year. US telehealth platform Hims & Hers (HIMS) went public on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2021, while omnichannel eCommerce solution provider 91APP became Taiwan’s first unicorn to launch an IPO on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Additionally, the Japanese buy now pay later platform Paidy was acquired by PayPal for $2.7 billion.
Cherubic Ventures will also reserve more than 50% of Fund V assets for supporting startups to their later rounds all the way to pre-IPO, providing long-term and full support to its portfolios. Managing its capital under a “sector-agnostic” strategy, the firm has partnered with over 150 startups from across the world in industries ranging from consumer to enterprise solutions to blockchain technology, among others.
Sustaining a “First Check” Strategy
Adding to its portfolio of market-leading unicorns in 2021, Cherubic Ventures was also among the first investors in industry-pioneering startups such as the world’s top sleep meditation app Calm along with Flexport, the leader in digital transformation for the logistics sector.
Founder and Managing Partner Matt Cheng [photo above] explained how Cherubic’s Fund V will represent a continuation of the firm’s “First Check” approach of seeking out high-potential teams that have yet to acquire any funding: “Putting faith in those startups that have yet to receive any investment is a challenging first step. However, Cherubic is very willing to be the first investor to believe in these teams.”
Cheng added that his firm’s criteria for choosing which startups to invest in are whether that team has a unique solution for a customer problem and how much experience they have in both entrepreneurism and their respective industries.
